Philippine reserves climb further to $103.8B in October

Philippine foreign reserves continued to climb to mark another record-high in October, mainly from the foreign exchange of operations of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank reported Monday.

Data from the BSP showed that the gross international reserves (GIR) hit $103.814 billion in October from the $100.443 billion recorded the previous month, and $85.834 billion in October 2019.

The increase in reserves reflected inflows mainly from the BSP foreign exchange operations worth $3.46 billion; net foreign currency deposits by the national government with the central bank worth $77 million; and revaluation gains on gold holdings worth $49 million.

The latest GIR represents an external liquidity buffer equivalent to 10.3 months' worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income, and 9.3 times the country's short-term external debt based on original maturity, and 5.4 times based on residual maturity.

The net international reserves (NIR), which refers to the difference between the BSP's GIR and total short-term liabilities, rose by $3.37 billion to $103.8 billion.

The BSP last month said it expects the GIR —a measure of a country's ability to settle import payments and service foreign debt —to settle at $100 billion by end-2020.—LDF, GMA News